Post-convention analysis

From the Institute for Public AccuracyFriday, 18 August 2000

DARA SILVERMAN, dsilverman@ufenet.org, http://www.ufenet.org

National organizer of United for a Fair Economy, Silverman said today: "At
the marches in the street, at trainings and in the Shadow Conventions, the
themes of economic inequality and the concentration of corporate power were
the basis of almost every message... Already 66 corporations, including
AT&T and Raytheon, have given over $50,000 to both Al Gore and George W.
Bush's campaigns for president."

Executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy, Solomon appeared
on the PBS "NewsHour with Jim Lehrer" on Wednesday. He said today: "Let's
face it: Most of the words that floated from the podiums of the Democratic
and Republican conventions amounted to little more than insipid drivel.
Delegates were so eager to stay 'on message' that there was no semblance of
political debate. The two major parties are more like public-relations
firms serving the interests of corporate clients than like political
entities serving the interests of the public."

JOHN MILLER, jmiller@wheatonma.edu, http://www.dollarsandsense.org

Professor of economics at Wheaton College in Massachusetts, Miller said
today: "On Monday night, Bill Clinton took credit for overseeing the most
prosperous economy in U.S. history. And last night Al Gore asked for our
support 'on the basis of the better, fairer, more prosperous America we can
build together' -- one, he says, that 'will enrich not just a few, but all
working families.' But continuing the Clinton-Gore economic policies will
do nothing to build a different, fairer economy. In the 1960s boom, wages
rose three times as quickly as in the 1990s boom, and the earlier boom
added nearly four times as much to the income of the median family."

Dr. COREY WEINSTEIN, coreman@igc.org, http://www.prisons.org

A board member of California Prison Focus and an independent correctional
consultant, Weinstein said: "One thing you won't hear from Gore is that his
administration has been vigorous in its support of the terrifying
experiment of mass incarceration in the United States. We now have 2
million prisoners in the U.S. There are 164,000 in California state
prisons; in 1970, there were 20,000. Federal policy has forced the states
to incarcerate more people for more kinds of crimes with longer sentences."

Dr. QUENTIN YOUNG, pnhp@aol.com, http://www.pnhp.org

National coordinator of Physicians for a National Health Program, Young
said today: "Both the Democrats and Republicans avoid the issue of
universal national health insurance. Their programs are failed programs.
Under this administration, we've gone from 36 million to 46 million
uninsured people. We spend $4,200 per capita annually, Switzerland is next
biggest spender at $2,400 -- and they have universal coverage. The Patient
Bill of Rights is empty. The corporate takeover of health care -- which
happened under the Democrats' watch -- doesn't need to be controlled, it
needs to be ended."

MARIANNE MANILOV, msqrd@igc.org, http://www.commercialfree.org

Founder of the Center for Commercial-Free Public Education, Manilov said:
"The shift in education policy discussion is similar to what happened
around welfare reform. The Democrats are talking about charter schools as a
way to increase 'accountability,' promote 'change' in neighborhoods where
there are 'failing schools.' This puts testing over teaching and avoids the
real issues: poverty and racism."

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (415) 552-5378